FIG 1.

Anti-CD20 treatment reduced levels of CD8⁺ T cells and increased tissue parasitism. Mice injected with isotype control (control; in white circles) or anti-CD20 (αCD20; in black circles) mAb were infected with 5,000 trypomastigotes of T. cruzi strain Tulahuén. (A and B) Representative dot plot and statistical analysis of the means ± standard deviations (SD) of the percentage and number of (A) CD8⁺ CD3⁺ T cells and (B) Tskb20/K^b+ CD8⁺ T cells, within the lymphocyte gate, in the spleen from uninfected (day 0) or infected mice at 20 dpi. Numbers within the plots indicate the frequency of cells in each region. (C) Statistical analysis of the mean ± SD of the percentage and number of Tskb20/K^b+ CD8⁺ T cells in liver at 20 dpi in control (white bars) or anti-CD20-treated mice (black bars). (D) Relative amounts of T. cruzi satellite DNA in liver, spleen, and heart from infected control and anti-CD20-treated mice determined at 20 dpi. Murine GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) was used for normalization. Data are presented as means ± SD. Results are representative of four (A to C) and two (D) independent experiments with 4 to 5 mice per group each. P values were calculated with the two-tailed t test. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001; n.s., not significant.